Five Times Trump Has Flipped Political Positions

We’re in a political policy du jour. Thanks, Donald Trump.

In America, presidential policies are newsworthy. We learn it in school. “Virtually everything that a president does is considered newsworthy.” Handbook of Political Communication, page 269. But, we now live in an America where we have to track what the presidential policies are based on the time of year, day, and maybe even what cable news shows President Donald Trump is watching.

So, if we are keeping track, here’s a handy list of five policies Trump’s flip-flopped on. (A la NPR Politics: This was written on Thursday, April 13 – these positions may have changed by the time you read them.)

NATO Being Obsolete

In March 2016, Trump was quoted as saying, “I have two problems with NATO. No. 1, it’s obsolete. When NATO was formed many decades ago we were a different country. There was a different threat. Soviet Union was, the Soviet Union, not Russia, which was much bigger than Russia, as you know. And, it was certainly much more powerful than even today’s Russia, although again you go back into the weaponry. But, but – I said, I think NATO is obsolete.”

After never getting to the second problem with NATO, he backtracked this week.

“I said it was obsolete; it’s no longer obsolete,” Trump said after a meeting with General Secretary of NATO, Jens Stoltenberg. “I complained about that a long time ago and they made a change, and now they do fight terrorism.”

Let’s all praise Trump for single-handedly changing the actions of a 68-year-old organization that was a response to the Hitler and Nazi regime… Not aiding in fighting terrorism in places where terrorism is happening, like Afghanistan…

Protecting the LGBTQ Community

Less than 1 year ago at the Republican National Convention, Trump said, “As your president, I will do everything in my power to protect the LGBTQ citizens from the violence and oppression of a hateful foreign ideology. Believe me.”

It’s been a few years; let’s see what’s developed in 2017, Syria, and the Assad regime:

On March 31, 2017, Press Secretary Sean Spicer said, “The United States has profound priorities in Syria and Iraq, and we’ve made it clear that counterterrorism, particularly the defeat of ISIS, is foremost among those priorities.”

“In the past, the president referred to particular job reports as phone or totally fiction – does the president believe that this jobs report was accurate and a fair way to measure the economy?” a reporter asked of the February jobs report citing a 4.7 unemployment rate.

Spicer replied, “I talked to the president prior to this and he said to quote him very clearly, ‘They may have been phony in the past, but it’s very real now.’”

Glad we’ve cleared that up – could have been a close one. Score one, for, math?

Build a Wall and Mexico Will Pay for It

That pretty much sums it up. Oh, the former President of Mexico disagrees? And is using Twitter to tell the world?

“Sean Spicer, I’ve said this to @realDonaldTrump and now I’ll tell you: Mexico is not going to pay for that f–cking wall. #F–ckingWall”

I guess Mexico isn’t paying for the wall? Mexico will REIMBURSE us for the border wall. Why didn’t you just say so?

What is the flip du jour? We don’t know just yet, but keep checking back.